Technical Field
This disclosure relates to systems and methods for making or implementing connections, e.g., introducing trusted individuals, in software applications and databases using touchscreens of mobile devices, such as cellular phones, tablets, or the like.
Description of Related Art
The usage of mobile wireless devices has increased greatly and progressed to the point where, for some geographic regions, most people have at least one mobile device, e.g., a smart phone, personal digital assistant (PDA), or a tablet. Users commonly install or have installed various software applications (a.k.a. “Apps”) on those devices. Notable examples of Apps include those that provide access to and use of social media such as Facebook, Myspace, and Linkedln, to name just a few.
Social media have developed various ways for users to connect with one another. For example, social media applications such as Facebook and Linkedln provide ways for their users to connect to one another. Such approaches, however, present difficulties and limitations when implemented on mobile devices. Limitations arise from the limited touchscreen space available to a user when working with a software application resident on a mobile device, often requiring the use of many user input screens (e.g., “dropdowns”)—with attendant memory requirements—for even simple navigation and use of the Apps on the mobile devices. Those memory requirements include not only the so-called “frontend,” referring to the mobile device itself, but also the “backend,” referring to a server and one or more databases that the front end communicates with.
As an example of limitations in the social media context, people presently face issues while making introductions to or receiving introductions from other people in the social media network, directly or indirectly, possibly involving one or more intermediary people for the latter situation. A person may make an introduction and ask permission from each of the introduced to see if both parties want to be introduced. This takes extra effort on the part of the introducer to ensure that all parties have given permission to give out their contact information. A person may also make an introduction and not ask permission from either user. This can lead to a few different outcomes: (A) one of the introduced parties may not desire someone reaching out to them and is placed in an awkward situation stating “No, I'm sorry, I am not interested in communicating with you”; (B) if the foregoing scenario happens, the introducer is also put in an awkward situation trying to balance his relationship between the introduced parties; (C) one of the introduced parties may not have wanted a specific contact point to be given out (e.g., someone gives out a personal phone number instead of a work email address); and (D) a person may make an introduction and not provide enough contextual information to the introduced parties to show that the introduction is valuable or mutually beneficial to all parties.
Using a mobile device to make connections, through its resident Apps, between members or items in one group with members or items of another group has typically involved the use of three lists: one for each of the different groups, and a separate one for listing the connections. Each list of groups has typically required a separate dropdown screen for the user, and also a table in memory. The more memory used by the App(s) on the mobile device, the more memory is needed for the database(s) and related server(s) on the backend to which the App(s) are linked and the more data is needed to be sent wirelessly to and from the mobile device. These represent factors slowing down performance of the App(s), server(s) and database(s).